


Into You Like A Train

by buoyantsaturn



Series: wsw2020 [1]
Category: Grey's Anatomy, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan, The Trials of Apollo - Rick Riordan
Genre: Doctor Will Solace, Emotional Manipulation, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Medical Inaccuracies, Miscommunication, it's a greys anatomy fic yall its as accurate and as drama filled as youd expect, maybe kinda sorta., theyre all doctors really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-25
Updated: 2020-08-25
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:21:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26117131
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/buoyantsaturn/pseuds/buoyantsaturn
Summary: “What’s so great about Solace?”“I’d bet money on him being soft and easy to manipulate. Screwing him would be an easy way to get a lot of invites into the OR, and trauma always gets the best pick of surgeries. Plus, he’s hot, and there’s no way he’s totally straight.”
Relationships: Nico di Angelo/Will Solace
Series: wsw2020 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1896388
Comments: 20
Kudos: 163





	Into You Like A Train

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this fic. months ago. and planned it like. 2 years ago. and i needed to get it out of my brain and also needed something to post for will solace week. so anyway here's this. enjoy, if you will.
> 
> title is from an episode of grey's anatomy of the same name!

As surgical interns at New Rome Hospital, Nico di Angelo and the rest of his year were at the bottom of the hospital’s food chain. As they were all fresh out of medical school, they had very little on-the-job training, and were forced to work long hours to build up the skills necessary to become great surgeons. 

Though some wondered if there were easier ways to get ahead of the game.

During their lunch break, Nico and the other interns on his assigned team - Jason Grace, Piper McLean, and Leo Valdez - were taking a moment to get to know each other, while subtly swapping ideas for how to get their team a step above the rest. Perhaps just a few too many of their ideas involved propositioning their superiors.

“What do you think about Doctor Ramirez?” Jason asked, nodding toward the doctor in question. “She’s head of Cardio, right?”

Piper replied, “I’d do some cardio with her any day.”

Leo leaned over the table to high-five her while Jason said, “You mean like, go on a run with her?”

Nico rolled his eyes, and Piper groaned. 

“You’ve been awfully quiet, Nico,” Leo pointed out. “Aren’t you gonna pick somebody? There’s plenty of attendings in the sea!”

Nico’s eyes scanned the room, searching for the trademark dark blue scrubs of the attendings. Then he shrugged, and took another bite of his sandwich. 

“C’mon, dude!” Leo said, shoving at Nico’s shoulder and blatantly ignoring Nico’s  _ don’t call me dude.  _ “At least let us know what you’re into. Okay, we’ll start off easy. Ramirez: hot or not?”

Nico didn’t even look up from his plate. “A bit too much estrogen for my taste.”

It took Leo a second to catch on. “Oh! You’re into dudes!” Nico’s eyes rolled again. “Okay, then what about...Jackson?”

“Head of Peds?” Nico glanced around the cafeteria until he found Doctor Percy Jackson at a table with a few other attendings, and sized him up. He thought about his response for a few moments before he said, “Yeah, pediatrics is a challenge, and he  _ is _ hot, but I think Chase already beat us to him.”

Jason piped up, “What about Zhang?”

Nico’s nose scrunched up. “Ortho? No thanks.”

“Then who  _ do _ you want?” Piper demanded. 

“Solace,” Nico answered simply, and finished off the last few bites of his sandwich.

Leo leaned in close to Jason and whispered, “Wait, which one is Solace?” 

“Head of Trauma, I think,” Jason replied, then turned his focus back to Nico. “What’s so great about Solace?”

Nico brushed his hands off and pushed his plate toward the center of the table. “I’d bet money on him being soft and easy to manipulate. Screwing him would be an easy way to get a lot of invites into the OR, and trauma always gets the best pick of surgeries. Plus, he’s hot, and there’s no way he’s totally straight.”

“Okay, you put  _ way _ too much thought into that,” Piper told him. “It’s not like I’m  _ actually _ planning on hooking up with Ramirez, you know. We’re just joking around.”

Nico shrugged. “We’ll see who’s laughing when I have Solace wrapped around my finger.”

The interns all met up at the bar across the street after their shift to celebrate the end of their first day of residency. The place seemed to be a hotspot for doctors, nurses, and EMTs, because the bar was already packed when they arrived. The four of them barely managed to squeeze into a table in the corner. 

All day, the other interns had been teasing Nico and picking on him for his plan to seduce Solace. He’d hoped that they’d let it go by the end of the day, but inebriation only seemed to help them pick up the pace. 

“Oh, look who just walked it!” Piper exclaimed, practically jumping onto Nico’s back to point toward the doorway, where a certain hot, blond trauma surgeon had just walked through the door. “Quick, Nico, confess your love for him so he’ll let you observe a surgery tomorrow!”

Nico shrugged her off. “I’m not in  _ love _ with him.”

“You  _ do _ wanna get in his pants, though,” Leo stated.

“Well,  _ yeah,” _ Nico replied. “I thought that was already established.”

“Then get on it, Casanova,” Jason said. “Don’t wait too long, or we’ll all start to think you’re chicken.”

Nico’s eyes narrowed. He was never one to back down from a dare, and Jason’s words were  _ definitely _ a dare. “Fine. I guess I should say goodbye, then, because as soon as I leave this table, you won’t see me again until tomorrow.”

“Aw, just because you’re too scared to admit your feelings doesn’t mean you have to leave,” Leo said. “C’mon, we’re just messing around!”

“Oh, I’m not leaving,” Nico assured him. “Not without Solace. See you tomorrow.” He grabbed his glass off the table and went to sit at one of the few open seats at the bar. He glanced over his left shoulder to see the other interns all watching him intently, and he rolled his eyes. He scanned the room to his left, but didn’t see Solace anywhere, so he looked to his right as he took a sip of his drink. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Solace settling down at a table with a few other attendings, so Nico turned back to the bar.

He waited a few moments, took another few sips of his drink, then looked back over his shoulder. As soon as his eyes locked on Solace, the trauma surgeon looked right back at him. Feigning surprise at being caught staring, Nico quickly turned back to the bar and downed the rest of his drink.

Nico counted the seconds in his head. Not sixty seconds later was someone walking up to Nico and asking, “Is this seat taken?”

Nico looked up to see who it was, and tried not to grin in satisfaction. “Uh, no, go right ahead, Doctor Solace.”

He smiled, and Nico refused to believe that his heart fluttered at the sight. “Please, you can call me Will,” he said as he sat down in the empty seat. “It’s Nico, right?” Nico nodded. “Can I buy you a drink, Nico?”

Nico hesitated, trying to play the role of the innocent bar patron rather than master manipulator - though the two probably weren’t very far apart. “But...you’re my attending. Isn’t there some kind of rule against that?”

“It’s just one drink,” Will told him. “What are you having?”

“Jack and Ginger,” Nico replied.

As Will got the attention of the bartender and ordered their drinks, Nico glanced back over his shoulder toward the other interns. They were all watching him with mixed expressions of drunken joy and absolute astonishment. Nico smirked and thought,  _ Just you wait. I haven’t even gotten started yet. _

“I couldn’t help but notice that you seemed very interested in the fasciotomy I did earlier today,” Will said, drawing Nico’s attention back to him. He had an arm resting on the bar, hand reaching out to the point where his fingers almost brushed against Nico’s wrist. “Maybe next time I can show you how to do one yourself.”

Nico ducked his head and smiled at the place where his hands sat on the bar. “I’d say it was less the procedure and more the doctor that I was interested in.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Will leaning in even closer. “Is that so? Well, I think I might just have to request you to be on my service sometime soon, so you can watch me work from a little bit closer. And maybe we can get to know each other better.”

Nico turned to face him, and with just that one simple movement, the two were nearly nose-to-nose. He paused, allowing himself a moment to take stock of the situation - check Will’s body language, the look in his eyes, no distinct smell of alcohol on his breath - and  _ oh yeah, _ Will was into this. “Or we could get out of here and get to know each other tonight.”

The bartender set their drinks down in front of them, and the sudden noise and movement seemed to break whatever energy was flowing between them. Will moved back instantly, dropping his gaze and smiling nervously at the drink he’d ordered.

“Sorry,” Nico said, absently stirring his own drink with the straw, “was that too much?”

Will turned that blinding smile on him and answered, “No, I just wasn’t expecting it. Are you good to drive, or--”

Nico jumped out of his seat, putting himself right up in Will’s personal space once again and said, “My place is just down the road.”

In a second, that sharp energy was back, and it was like Will couldn’t take his eyes off of Nico. He reached out blindly for his drink, took a swig, and got to his feet. Nico led him toward the front door, though at the last second, he stopped and turned around. He glanced out of the corner of his eye - the other interns were  _ still _ watching, so why not give them a show? - then grabbed Will by the collar of his shirt and pulled him down for a kiss.

It was nothing more than a tease of lips and tongue, but by the time he pulled away, Will’s gaze turned  _ hungry. _ Nico barely had time to pull him out of the bar before Will was pressing him up against the exterior wall and stealing another kiss. 

Now, Nico wasn’t usually one to complain in this situation, but he couldn’t help but remember that they were still very much in public, when they could be somewhere private where they could do much more than just kiss.

When Nico started panting for breath, Will moved on from Nico’s lips to his neck.

“You gotta come up for air sometime, Solace,” Nico huffed, fingers curling in the hair on the back of Will’s head.

“Is that so?” Will breathed into Nico’s ear, causing a shiver to travel down the other man’s spine.

“Yeah,” Nico whispered, his eyes slipping shut and his head tipping back against the brick wall behind him. “Can’t have you asphyxiating before we get to the fun stuff.”

Suddenly, Will’s mouth was on his again, just for a second, before he whispered against Nico’s lips, “Then maybe you shouldn’t have kissed me yet. Now I don’t want to stop.”

“How about a pause, then,” Nico suggested. “And when we get to my place, you can have me however you want me.”

Will hummed. “I  _ do _ like the sound of that. Lead the way.”

* * *

They drove to the hospital together the next morning, and when they parted ways in the lobby, Will left Nico with a kiss on the cheek and a promise of, “I’ll make sure Annabeth puts you on my service today.”

Nico was grinning ear to ear the whole way to the locker room.

As he changed into his scrubs, Leo pointed out a few dark marks that Will had left behind. “Solace and I hooked up last night after we left the bar. He even requested I be on his service today, so the wheels are already in motion for me to leave you all in my dust," Nico told them all. 

A few of the other interns pried for some dirty details, though by the time Doctor Chase entered the room, Nico had refused to give them a single morsel of information - last night was between him and Will alone.

As soon as she was in the room, Annabeth was reading instructions off the clipboard in her hands, spouting off names of interns and pairing them with either residents or attendings. “Grace, McLean, Valdez, you’re with me. Rounds start in five minutes, and I’ll see you in the outpatient surgical wing. di Angelo, Solace requested you in the pit, report immediately. If your name was not called, report to the nurse’s station on the third floor.”

Nico was out of the room before Annabeth had finished speaking, waving to his fellow interns and making his way down to the Emergency Room.

* * *

As it turned out, sleeping with his attending earned Nico more perks than just sex and surgery. Will genuinely was a great teacher, and helped Nico on just about every case, even when Will was busy. He brought Nico coffee without being asked, and it always came right when Nico needed it most. Perhaps best of all, Will had shown Nico the best places to nap, and tended to join him regardless of whether either of them had twenty minutes or two hours of availability to rest. 

With so many perks, there of course had to be a downside. 

In Nico’s case, that downside was his fellow interns.

Jason teased Nico relentlessly whenever Will brought him coffee. Piper had caught them sharing a brief kiss before Will rushed off to surgery and proceeded to coo over the cute couple. Leo once walked into an on call room where Nico and Will were asleep in the same bed, and later insisted to Nico that at no point during the emotional manipulation of a superior should  _ napping together _ be involved, and therefore Nico and Will were  _ clearly dating. _

They were  _ not _ dating.

So what if Nico liked some of the unexpected perks that came with a few casual hookups? That didn’t mean they were  _ dating. _ There had to be a mutual emotional connection for that! This thing between Nico and Will was  _ purely _ physical - Nico wasn’t even romantically attracted to Will, besides!

And that was what he tried to explain to the other interns, on a near daily basis. They never listened, and in fact, only seemed to take Nico’s arguments as defensiveness.

“You say it’s all about getting more surgeries than the rest of us, but I’ve been in an OR more often that you have in the last week,” Jason pointed out. 

“Surgeries don’t always happen in the Operating Room, Jas,” Nico argued. “How many surgical procedures have  _ you _ done in a trauma room this month? Because I’ve already hit double digits, and that’s  _ on top of _ what I’ve done in the OR. Compared to you guys, I’m getting  _ way _ more surgical experience. And sex! While you’re barely getting  _ one _ of those things. So, who’s really winning here? Oh, yeah.  _ Me.” _

Piper rolled her eyes. “God, Nico, it’s like ever since you got a boyfriend, he’s all you can talk about.”

“He’s  _ not  _ my boyfriend!” Nico shrieked. 

The others laughed.

Nico huffed and slouched in his seat, arms folding over his chest. “Can we  _ please _ talk about something else for once?”

Leo shrugged. “As long as you promise not to bring up your boyfriend again.”

Nico growled, while Piper and Leo high fived over the table. 

“Oh, actually, I do have something!” Piper exclaimed, and plunged her hands into the pockets of her lab coat. She pulled out a folded piece of paper, flattened it out, and placed it on the table between them. “I found this great apartment downtown! It’s two bedrooms, and if somebody split the rent with me, it’d be  _ so _ much cheaper than what I’m paying for my studio right now.”

Jason glanced up from the chart he was studying. “Oh, uh, Leo and I were actually already looking for a place together.”

“Yeah, but if you could find a  _ three _ bedroom, that’d be  _ perfect!” _ Leo added.

Piper turned to Nico, who was munching on an apple and scribbling something in the margin of the chart in front of him. “What about you, Nico?”

“I’m set.”

Piper grabbed the paper and stuffed it back in her pocket. “Fine, but you guys are totally missing out. I’m a  _ great _ roommate, and you’re not gonna find a better deal than this place.”

“Hey, come on, we just said we would live with you if you found a bigger place!” Leo said. 

As the three began to argue, Nico tried to drown out the noise by focusing on the chart he was reading. He had to finish this patient plan before Annabeth got out of surgery in about half an hour, and he was debating texting Will to ask for his input before he had to present his plan later.

Before he could get his phone out of his pocket, though, he felt a hand fall on his shoulder, and a pair of lips pressed a kiss to the side of his head. 

“Hey, I was just about to text you,” Nico said, smiling at Will over his shoulder.

“Perfect timing, then,” Will said. “What’s up?”

Nico held the chart up for Will to take, and told him, “I have to present this to Annabeth soon. Can you look it over for me?”

“Mhm.” Will took the chart and read over Nico’s plan a few times before handing it back. “Looks good to me, but if it were my patient, I’d probably lower the dosage of pain meds here. You can always go back and raise it later if you need to, but I don’t think you need to start off so strong.”

“Great, thanks!” Nico said, and as he turned back to the chart to jot down Will’s advice, he continued, “What’s up with you?”

“Frank asked me to help him set a few broken bones of a car crash victim, and I could probably get you in the OR with us if you’re interested.” Will added enticingly, “It might get messy!”

Before Nico could answer, Leo butted into their conversation with, “Hey, Solace! Do you know of any three bedroom apartments for rent around here?”

Will looked up, seeming to notice the other interns for the first time. “Uh, Nico’s got a few spare bedrooms, don’t you, Neeks?”

Sirens started sounding in Nico’s head, and he did his best not to glare at Will or anyone else nearby. “Yes, Will, I’d love to observe your surgery later, but I actually have a patient that I need to go check on  _ right now,” _ Nico said as he quickly gathered up his charts and stood from the table, already backing away as he continued, “so just text me the details or something. Gotta go, bye!”

He turned on his heel and ran out of the cafeteria, and instantly, the other interns scrambled after him. 

* * *

There were few things that Nico loved more than being in bed with Will. Surgery, of course, was high up on the list. Nico loved surgery. He loved his family, too, even if he was the only one of them still walking the earth. And he loved to cook - particularly the recipes on a few dog-eared pages in his mother’s favorite cookbook.

But the weight of Will’s arms around him, the heat of Will’s skin against his, each puff of breath against Nico’s mouth, throat, chest. There was something incomparable about the love he had for it, and he would  _ savor  _ that time with Will while he could.

They were in Nico’s bedroom, Will sitting up against the headboard with Nico on his lap, tangled up in each other. Will had a hand, fingers splayed, resting between Nico’s shoulder blades on his back, while Nico’s own fingers twisted in Will’s hair. They shared sloppy, lazy kisses, as though they had all the time in the world - and in a way, they did. Will’s evening surgery had been canceled, and Nico had hit his eighty-hour limit for the week. Naturally, they would find each other in their spare time.

Will’s arm tightened around Nico’s waist, pulling their bodies closer together and drawing a gasp from Nico. As Will’s lips found Nico’s throat and as Nico’s head tipped back, a door slammed somewhere else in the house. The two startled away from each other before they heard something like arguing from the room beneath them, and Nico groaned. 

He dropped his forehead on Will’s shoulder and complained, “This is all your fault, you know.”

Will smoothed his hand up and down Nico’s spine and whispered in his ear, “Just relax. Ignore them, it’s just you and me right now.” He returned to trailing kisses down Nico’s neck, and felt the tension beginning to drain from Nico’s body again. Until someone downstairs shouted again, and caused Nico to turn rigid once more.

Will pressed a kiss to his cheek. “I’ll help you forget about them.”

Before Nico could even start to guess at what Will had planned, he was flipped onto his back and pressed into the pillows. Will’s lips traveled south, making a line down Nico’s chest and pulling a shiver from him.

“Are you cold?” Will asked, already gathering up the blankets that had been pushed to the foot of the bed. As he knelt between Nico’s thighs, he pulled the blankets up over his head. He winked at Nico just before throwing the blankets over them both and diving down to reattach his mouth and hands to Nico’s skin.

Will was in the process of sucking a nasty bruise into Nico’s skin, down low on his stomach, when the bedroom door flew open.

“Nico, will you  _ please _ tell Leo that it’s  _ his _ turn to do the dishes?” 

Nico was throwing a pillow at Piper the second she was in his sight. “Get  _ out!” _

The door slammed shut with a shriek and a  _ sorry! _ and Nico fell back against the pillows with a groan -  _ not _ a pleased one. 

And worse, Will had stopped what he was doing, and instead he was--

“Are you  _ laughing?” _ Nico hissed, shoving the blankets away and revealing Will and his brilliant smile and the snort he couldn’t contain. “Oh, you think this is funny, do you? If you weren’t under the blanket, Piper would have seen your  _ naked ass. _ Is this still funny to you?”

The smile dropped from his face instantly, and Will slowly turned a very bright shade of red. “I’ll buy you a lock for the door, I promise.”

* * *

“I think you’re forgetting who got to close on Will’s surgery this morning,” Nico huffed, but the other interns couldn’t hear him over the sound of their laughter. Nico crossed his arms and rolled his eyes as Leo practically gasped for breath. “Okay, nothing is  _ that _ funny!”

“You said--! And then he--!” Piper wheezed, holding her stomach as she doubled over. “You and your boyfriend, Nico, I  _ swear--” _

“He’s  _ not _ my  _ boyfriend!” _ Nico hissed.

Jason actually  _ wiped a tear from his eye. _ “I’m sorry, Nico, but casual hookups don’t join in the morning carpool. He made vegan bacon for Piper without being asked!”

“He pitched in on groceries!” Leo shrieked. He threw his head back as he somehow laughed  _ harder, _ and almost knocked himself off balance.

Nico groaned. “Okay, whatever, he’s  _ nice! _ That doesn’t mean we’re dating!”

_ “So _ oblivious!” Piper cackled. “He clearly likes you! And you like him!”

“No, I have him--”

“Wrapped around your finger,” Jason, Piper, and Leo said in unison, “we know!”

Nico rolled his eyes.

“If anything, I think he has  _ you _ wrapped around  _ his _ finger,” Piper told him. At the confused looks pointed in her direction, she elaborated. “It’s like, he gets sex whenever he wants, he has an assistant on every surgery,  _ and _ he’s staying rent free in Nico’s giant ass house! I bet he’s using  _ you _ even more than you think you’re using  _ him.” _

Nico frowned. “What? No way! He wouldn’t do that, he couldn’t possibly--”

“Oh? And why not?” Piper asked, leaning over the high counter of the nurse’s station, resting her chin on her hand. “Is it because you want him to like you? Because maybe you have  _ feelings _ for the guy you’ve been sleeping with for a few months?”

“I don’t have  _ feelings _ for anybody,” Nico told her.

“Yeah, Piper, Nico doesn’t have  _ feelings _ at all,” Leo teased. 

“Shut up,” Nico snapped. He was getting sick of this conversation - of being awake at all, really. Maybe he ought to try to get a nap in before his shift in the clinic started…and maybe he could get Will to join him. “So what, maybe Will is using me just like I’m using him, it doesn’t matter. The point is, we’re not dating, I’m getting sex and surgery,  _ and _ Will even said he’s going to tell the chief that I’m a great candidate for the intern appy. So there!” Though even as he said the words, something about them didn’t feel right. Was he actually upset at the idea that Will might not like him, even if Nico didn’t have any romantic interest in him? Because he didn’t. 

Did he?

His phone buzzed in his pocket, pulling him away from that train of thought. There was a text from Will on the screen that said:  _ 3rd floor on call room. _

“And speaking of sex,” Nico said, pocketing his phone once more and turning on his heel. Honestly, at this point he would have preferred a simple nap to sex, but either way he was getting out of that conversation, so it was fine by him. 

He shed his lab coat outside the door to the on call room, and tried his best to not look suspicious when he entered. He closed the door as quietly as possible, and clicked the lock into place. The room around him was so dark that Nico wondered whether Will was even there yet, but a second after the thought crossed his mind, a pair of arms snaked around his waist and pulled him close. Will held him tight, sandwiching Nico between his chest and the door behind him, but he wasn’t...doing anything. Just holding him and...sniffling?

Nico reached his arms around Will’s back, one hand moving into Will’s hair and playing with a few curls between his fingers. “Hey,” Nico said gently, “uh, what’s up?”

“Lost a patient,” Will whispered, his lips brushing the side of Nico’s neck. 

“Oh. Do you...wanna talk about it?” Nico asked hesitantly.

Will let out a shaky breath. “She was just a little girl,” he said, and Nico started to feel the warm wetness of tears dampening the collar of his shirt. “She was too young to be sitting in the front seat of the car, and they got in a wreck, and-- Her body was just under too much stress, and then one of her arteries tore during surgery, and it was just too much. If I’d just been a little quicker, I could’ve saved her, I  _ know _ I could’ve, but…” 

He fell silent again as a sob shook his body. 

Nico was at a loss for what to do. He’d never been great at comforting people, had never really had the chance to practice - it was always him that was grieving, after all - so he started rubbing Will’s back. He stroked his hand up and down until Will’s breathing returned to normal, and continued to play with his hair until Will finally moved back a step and met Nico’s eyes in the dark. 

“Thank you,” Will said, wiping at his eyes with his sleeve.

Nico frowned. “For what? I didn’t do anything.”

Will gave him a crooked smile, like he didn’t know whether to laugh or be confused by what Nico said. “You were here, weren’t you?”

Nico shrugged.

Will sighed, his deep breath still coming out a little shaky, though he pushed through it. “Alright, c’mon, let’s go to the skills lab so I can show you what I could have done better, and you can learn from my mistake.”

Will reached for the door handle, though before he could turn it, Nico’s hand dropped on top of his. “Wait,” Nico said, and froze when he realized he didn’t have anything else to say. He met Will’s eyes once again and tried, “Let’s stay here for a little while. You could use a break, and I could use a nap, so… What do you say? Lay down with me for a little while?”

Will swooped down and pressed his lips to Nico’s. “I’d love nothing more.”

As they settled into one of the creaky, too-small beds, Nico couldn’t help but wonder who was using who...and which one of them had accidentally caught feelings.

* * *

Will had a date. A study date, technically, but Nico was already at home cooking dinner in exchange for Will’s help in preparing for his first solo surgery, and Will was  _ not  _ going to be late. For as long as they’d been together, they’d never actually been on a real date. It was understandable, considering their busy schedules, but Will wouldn’t miss this for the world.

His surgery had already run late that night, so he was rushing through the hospital to get back to the attendings lounge. He just needed to change out of his scrubs, and then he could be on his way.

Inside the lounge, as Will was changing, a few of his coworkers were relaxing before a late night shift. 

“Where are you running off to?” Percy asked as he poured himself a cup of coffee.

“I have a date,” Will said, feeling his lips stretch into a smile at the words. 

Reyna shot him a look. “With di Angelo?”

“Uh, yeah, who else?” Will turned his back to the others as he changed his pants, giving himself the allusion of privacy in the room. 

Behind him, Frank whispered, “Who wants to tell him?”

Will pulled his shirt on over his shoulders and turned to face the others as he started buttoning up the front. “Tell me what?” The others exchanged a few nervous glances, and Will huffed. “Tell me _ what?” _

Percy took a deep breath. “Look, Will, it’s probably not something you want to hear, but--”

“Nico is  _ definitely  _ using you,” Reyna cut in. 

Will frowned. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“Don’t act dense, Solace, I’m sure on some level you already knew,” Reyna continued. “I could tell from that first night when he picked you up at the bar. Maybe it’s just sex to him, or maybe he thinks you’ll help him get ahead of the rest of his year, but either way, it’s all just some game to him.”

Will shook his head, turning around once more so that they couldn’t see his expression. What was Reyna  _ talking about? _ There was no way that was true! And besides, what did  _ they _ know? Nico was dating  _ him, _ not any of them!

“Interns don’t just  _ date _ attendings, Will,” Frank said sympathetically. 

“Then what about Annabeth? Did you all assume that she was using Percy when they first got together?” Will demanded. 

“First of all,” Percy started, “we didn’t get together until she was a second year, and back then, I was still a resident.”

“And Annabeth wasn’t going to become a world class neurosurgeon by helping Percy fix little kid’s stomach aches,” Frank finished for him.

Percy punched Frank’s shoulder and said, “Hey, I do more than that!”

“Nico doesn’t have the experience to pick a specialty,” Reyna elaborated, “and for all we know, he’s going to choose trauma, so he’s using you to get ahead.”

“None of you have  _ any _ proof for this,” Will grumbled. 

Reyna stepped up behind him and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Just be careful, Will. I worked with Nico yesterday, and when I asked him about you, he talked strictly about the medicine - not a  _ word _ about your relationship.”

“Because he probably doesn’t want people to think he’s using me to get ahead!” Will snapped.

“Dude, Annabeth said she overheard him talking to the other interns about how you’ve been giving him private lessons,” Percy told him, and then a second later said, “Which I’m now realizing might have actually been some kind of euphemism I was misunderstanding, so… Gross.” 

Will whipped around to face them once again, anger in his eyes. “None of you know what you’re talking about! It’s like you’re just  _ trying _ to piss me off! I’m  _ happy, _ isn’t that good enough for you?”

“We’re just trying to look out for you, Will,” Frank said.

Reyna crossed her arms, never one to take getting yelled at lightly. “Maybe you should stop with the extra lessons and surgery invites, and see how long he sticks around.”

“And probably less sex, too,” Percy jumped in, “you know, just to make sure you’ve got all your bases covered.”

Will slammed his locker shut. “Would you all stay  _ out _ of my business? I’m supposed to be having dinner with my  _ boyfriend _ right now, and nothing  _ any _ of you say will stop me from going over there.” 

He left the room, shutting the door behind him with so much force that it shook the walls. 

By the time he’d made it out of the hospital and into the parking lot, all of the anger had drained from his body, finally allowing the words of his friends to sink in.  _ Was _ there a chance that Nico was using him? Had he really been so naive?

He sat down in his car and pulled out his phone. He’d sent Nico a text right when he’d gotten out of surgery, and Nico had replied with a picture of one of his medical textbooks on the counter next to a very active cooktop in his kitchen. He had replied,  _ can’t wait to see you. _

Will typed out a new message:  _ trauma just came in, can’t make it. _

He started his car and drove home.

* * *

For the last week, Nico had been shuffled around to every other department in the hospital - it was as though Annabeth was  _ trying _ to keep him out of the emergency room. Even when massive traumas came in, Nico was stuck in the OR with Percy, forced to observe  _ another _ bowel obstruction surgery. 

Nico hadn’t gotten the chance to talk to Will since the morning of their canceled date - the night when Nico was going to come clean about everything, when he’d hoped they could start over and make everything  _ real. _ Even if he couldn’t do so over dinner, he wished he at least could’ve tried to explain everything to Will between surgeries or after work or  _ something. _ It was like Will was avoiding him.

Nico had tried texting him, but on the off chance that Will  _ didn’t _ ignore him, he simply replied,  _ can’t talk, sorry. _ Whenever Nico saw him across the waiting room, or at the other end of a hall, it was as though Will was trying to get away from him.

He’d been getting terrible stomach aches recently, the same kind he’d gotten during med school whenever his anxiety skyrocketed. He was  _ certain, _ if Will would just talk to him - even if only to break up with him - then Nico could return to life as normal. No more stomach aches, just a broken heart. 

If only he knew what he’d done to make Will hate him so suddenly.

* * *

Piper had never been on Will’s service, but even after a couple of hours, she understood the appeal. Trauma was non-stop, fast-paced, and Piper learned so much in such a short amount of time. The only issue was  _ Will. _

He seemed grumpy and snippy, and if this was how he always acted at the hospital, then Piper didn’t understand how Nico could stand to be around him. Then there was the fact that Will hadn’t been by the house in about a week. Ever since he and Nico had started hooking up, Will was spending the night every few days, but clearly something had happened. Nico refused to talk about it, probably because he refused to admit there was a relationship to begin with, but Will wouldn’t say anything to her either. 

The few times she’d tried to bring it up, Will simply said, “There’s no problem, I’m just busy.” After the third time, he practically snapped at her to quit asking, so Piper gave up. If Will was going to be an ass, then Piper wouldn’t try to help. She was Nico’s friend, after all, so of course she would side with him.

Then a trauma came in - all hands on deck. It was the first time Piper had seen Nico in the Emergency Room since Will had stopped talking to him, and as soon as Will laid eyes on Nico, he turned and walked the other way.  _ Sure, _ Piper thought.  _ No problem at all. _

“McLean, you’re with me in Trauma One,” Will called, and Piper followed. The next few minutes were a rush of pure chaos as doctors and nurses began working on the patient in the bed. As Will walked Piper through the intubation, the patient’s family came running into the room, already screaming and crying and  _ distracting. _

“Somebody get them out of here, please!” Will shouted over the noise, but nobody moved to close the doors.

Then, Piper saw Nico push his way into the room, fighting to get close and help, asking what he could do. 

When Will saw him, he looked  _ furious. _

“di Angelo, get the family out of here,” Will snapped. 

“Doctor Solace, I can  _ help--” _ Nico tried.

Will grit his teeth. “di Angelo--”

_ “Will!” _

Will glared at him with fire in his eyes.  _ “GET OUT!” _

Nico flinched back, and a moment later, he retreated, taking the family with him.

“No problem at all,” Piper muttered to herself. 

* * *

Nico had stopped texting him. Will no longer saw Nico lingering at the entrance to the Emergency Room. As much as Will had been avoiding Nico, it still stung to realize he was now receiving the same treatment.

He tried to think of it as a good thing - if Nico wasn’t willing to put in the effort to keep their relationship, then Reyna must have been right all along. But even that logic was flawed.  _ Will _ had ruined their relationship, and at this point, he doubted there was anything he could do to fix it. Some small part of him just wanted to run to Nico and beg for forgiveness, but he couldn’t even make himself do that.

After the incident in the trauma room, Will didn’t see Nico for five days. He couldn’t even request Nico to be on his service - the one time he’d tried, Annabeth had flat out refused, saying that she wasn’t about to go through the trouble of arranging a schedule just to have to redo it on the spot when a fight broke out.

The first time Will saw Nico in days, they were alone in a hallway. Will had been sitting on an unused gurney, reading over patient charts, when he looked up and saw Nico sitting on a bench down the hall. He was hunched over, face in his hands, looking absolutely  _ miserable.  _ Will’s heart broke at the sight - he was a  _ healer, _ how could he have caused someone to be in so much pain?

He set the charts aside and tried to think of some excuse for the way he’d behaved. Should he just come clean? Tell Nico that his friends had gotten into his head, but that he regretted ever listening to them? Would that be enough?

He had to try. 

He stood up from the gurney and called out, “Hey, uh, Nico? Can I talk to you for a second?”

Nico’s head snapped up, and he looked at Will with so much dread that Will felt like he’d been punched in the gut. Nico looked so much paler than usual, and his eyes seemed unfocused. He got to his feet slowly, swaying slightly as he stood. Will had managed to recognize the signs right before Nico’s eyes rolled back in his head, and Will was already running toward him before Nico lost consciousness. He passed out as he fell, and Will caught him right before he hit the ground.

Will laid his head gently on the tiled floor, and immediately started checking him over - he wasn’t seizing, there were no signs of brain damage, but  _ what _ was happening to him?

“I need some help over here!” Will shouted to anybody that would listen. He turned back to Nico, stroking his cheeks with his thumbs, and whispered, “Please wake up, Darling, please don’t die mad at me.”

Will refused to leave Nico’s side after his emergency appendectomy. He hadn’t been allowed inside the Operating Room during the surgery, but Annabeth had updated him frequently throughout. Finally, just under three hours after Nico was moved to a private room, he started to wake up.

At just the slightest twitch of Nico’s finger and the subtle flicker of his eyelids, Will was reaching out for Nico’s hand, clasping it between both of his own. 

“Nico, Darling, are you okay?” Will whispered, pressing his lips to Nico’s knuckles as he spoke.

Nico’s head rolled on the pillow, allowing him to meet Will’s eyes. When he did, his eyes grew to the size of dinner plates, as though he was terrified by the idea of being alone in the same room as him.

Will’s own eyes squeezed shut at the sight -  _ no, _ he couldn’t have Nico hate him  _ and  _ be afraid of him; one was bad enough. He dropped his head, resting his forehead on their joined hands, and began to plead. “I’m so sorry, Nico. I never should have avoided you. I should’ve just  _ talked _ to you about it, and then maybe if we had been together, one of us would’ve noticed that something was wrong. I put you through so much pain, and on top of that, you had to deal with your appendix bursting. And I wasn’t there to help. I’m  _ so _ sorry, Nico, would you please forgive me?”

He froze in place, stayed as still as a statue until he heard Nico’s voice. “You’re so pretty.”

Will’s head shot up. Nico was watching him with a dopey smile.  _ Of course _ they would put him on painkillers after the week he’d had. “What?” Will said reflexively. 

“You’re pretty, and smart, and nice, and funny, and pretty, and--” Nico frowned. “Did I say that one already?”

Will felt a tiny laugh bubble up out of himself - or maybe it was a sob, he couldn’t quite tell. “Yeah,” he croaked. “You did. A couple of times.”

“Well, you are,” Nico said as a matter of fact. “Can I tell you a secret?”

Will hesitated. “Is it something you would say to me in your right mind? Or should we maybe wait until the drugs wear off?”

Nico shook his head, which mostly consisted of him shoving his face into his pillow. “Nah, I was gonna tell you before you yelled at me.”

“I--?” Will frowned in confusion, then realization dawned on him like a rock of guilt being thrown into his stomach. “Oh. Yeah, I did do that, didn’t I?”

Nico wiggled his fingers in Will’s grip and watched the movement, mesmerized. “Yeah, you did. That was maybe the only not-nice thing you’ve ever done. Anyway. My secret is you’re a whole lot nicer than I am.”

Will snorted. “I don’t know if that was really that big of a secret.”

“No, it is,” Nico assured him. “I was pamintaliting you.”

Will paused to try to process...whatever Nico had just said. “You  _ what?” _

“Mapintalating.”

“... _ Manipulating?” _

“Yeah, that one,” Nico said with a satisfied nod. “But I don’t want to anymore. You’re too pretty and nice to mantipulate.”

“Uh huh,” Will said slowly, allowing himself a moment to process the words. “So, let me get this straight: you somehow manipulated me into a relationship where I thought we were dating, but you were actually just using me for…?”

“Surgery,” Nico finished for him. 

“Oh my god,” Will whispered to himself, “Reyna was right.”

“But I don’t wanna anymore,” Nico said again. He yawned, his jaw cracking as he did so. “I just wanna be your boyfriend now.”

Will reached one hand forward and brushed Nico’s hair away from his face. “Of course, Darling. But I think you should rest a little longer, okay? Go back to sleep, Neeks.”

“Will you still be here when I wake up?” Nico asked, blinking sleepily. 

“Yeah, I will,” Will told him. He pressed another kiss to Nico’s knuckles before lowering his hand back to the mattress.

Nico’s eyes closed, and within minutes, he was asleep once more. 

Will stood from his seat as quietly as he could, and made to leave the room. He needed to talk to somebody about this. He should talk to Reyna.

No - there were a few interns he needed to find.

* * *

Nico’s stomach still hurt when he woke up, but it was a different kind of pain this time. Less like he was dying, and more like he’d done a thousand sit-ups and maybe tore a muscle. 

And he must have done something to himself, considering he woke up in a hospital bed, in a gown, with an IV in his hand. He was tempted to hit the call button just to ask somebody what had happened, but he didn’t know where the remote was, and he felt like any form of movement would rip his abdomen in half.

So he laid there. Just for a few minutes. Then there was a knock on his door. 

He turned his head, already glaring, but his eyes widened in surprise at who he saw there. 

“Hey,” Will said, leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed over his chest. “I hear you’ve been manipulating me.”

Nico stammered. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said, mouth going dry in fear of what Will might say next. 

Will entered the room and took a seat in the chair at Nico’s bedside. “A little birdie told me you were sleeping with me just to get ahead of the rest of your year.”

Nico wanted to argue, but he didn’t know how. If he was too defensive, Will would see right through him. If he brushed it off, Will wouldn’t let the subject drop. Nico groaned, throwing his head back into his pillow and ground the heels of his palms into his eyes. The movement shot a spark of pain through his stomach, but he tried to ignore it. 

“Who told you?” Nico asked. “It was Leo, wasn’t it?”

“No, Nico, it was you, about two hours ago,” Will told him. “I just talked to your friends to confirm it. They all gave you up in a second.”

_ “Damn it,” _ Nico whispered, keeping his hands over his eyes as tears threatened to spill out. Why was he  _ crying? _ Will hadn’t even broken his heart yet, he should be  _ fine! _ “Okay, so, what are you going to do? Report me to the chief?”

“I was kind of hoping I could take you out to dinner.”

Nico tore his hands away to get a look at Will’s face, and - yes, he was  _ serious. _ “What--  _ Why?” _

Will grinned. “Well, after you came clean, you told me how much you regretted it, and how you just wanted to  _ actually _ date me instead.” He shrugged. “So, I figure I’ll give you another chance, see what happens.”

Nico groaned again and pulled the pillow out from underneath his head, slamming it into his own face to muffle his sounds. “You’re a jerk,” he muttered.

“What was that?” Will asked.

Nico ripped the pillow away. “You’re a  _ jerk!” _

Will had the audacity to  _ laugh. _ “How am I a jerk? I just asked you on a date! Isn’t that what you wanted?”

“Yes! Of course it was! But you made it sound like you were going to break up with me or get me  _ fired!” _ Nico practically shouted at him. 

Will shrugged again, still wearing that  _ infuriating _ grin. “Okay, so I’m a jerk. A jerk you  _ like.” _

Nico tried to smother himself with his own pillow. Of course, Will wouldn’t let him.

* * *

Nico stood at the island in his kitchen in nothing but a pair of pajama pants, practicing a certain surgical technique with a needle, thread, and the peel of a banana. Jason, Piper, and Leo had all left for work much earlier that morning, having rounds to complete, while Nico was given the morning off to study for his first solo surgery - an appendectomy, ironically. 

Will had wanted to help him study, but had gotten caught doing an emergency surgery late into the night, and didn’t even stumble into Nico’s bed until an hour before the sun rose. Eventually, though, he made his way down to the kitchen, sneaking up behind Nico and wrapping his arms around the other man’s waist. He set his chin on Nico’s shoulder and pressed a kiss to the skin just underneath Nico’s jaw. 

“Good morning,” Nico told him, pulling a thread tight against the peel. 

“G’morning,” Will yawned back. “How’s practicing?”

“Good, I think,” Nico said, and moved his hands away from the banana. “How’s my stitching look?”

Will hummed as he peered down over Nico’s shoulder, and finally decided on, “Stitches could be closer together, but you got the form right.”

“Got it.” Nico resumed stitching, while Will let his eyes drift shut. He set his forehead on Nico’s shoulder and began to sway gently back and forth. “What are you doing?” Nico asked with the beginnings of laughter dancing on his tongue. 

“Hmm?” Will lifted his head and pressed his lips to the skin instead. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Nico placed a hand over Will’s on his stomach, where Will had been absent-mindedly stroking a thumb across the scar on Nico’s abdomen. “You’re distracting me.”

Will kissed the side of Nico’s neck. “Am I?” he asked, trailing another kiss higher. “What--” another kiss, “--am I doing--” and another, “--that’s distracting you?” He punctuated the sentence with a soft bite to Nico’s earlobe, which pulled a shiver from the other man. 

“What  _ aren’t _ you doing?” Nico groaned. 

Will let one of his hands slide lower to the waistband of Nico’s pants. “I could be doing  _ so _ much more.”

Nico dropped his needle and thread, falling back against Will’s chest. “I’m supposed to be practicing.”

“Practice later.”

Nico craned his neck back to look up at Will. “You’re a terrible influence, Doctor Solace.”

Will grinned. “Oh, but I’m a great teacher. Care to head back upstairs for some private lessons?”

Nico snorted, but he grabbed Will’s hand and led the way. 

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading!!
> 
> i understand the concerns that some members of this fandom have about adult writers aging up characters to put them in adult situations, and i am open to hearing your concerns!! if this fic (or any of my other fics) come off as overly inappropriate or are mistagged in a way that could lead to the people reading content that isn't appropriate for them, please let me know! part of the reason i waited so long to post this fic was because i wanted to make sure that i wasn't in the wrong for writing it in the first place, and i want to make it known for the future that i am very open to criticism! i am an adult, so i might tend to write college au/adult-centered fics more often than high school-age fics just because it's what i'm more used to, but i can promise to do my best to tag my works appropriately and i can promise that i will never write "on-camera" or graphic sexual scenes of any character.


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